New book explores the making of the T

Author Doug Most tells the remarkable story of the creation of the subway in his new book, “The Race Underground: Boston, New York, and the Incredible Rivalry That Built America's First Subway.”

By Jody FeinbergThe Patriot Ledger

The T today is hardly glamorous, but its opening day on Sept. 1, 1897 was cause for crowds to gather. More than 250,000 people crammed onto the subway cars, eager to experience this new form of transportation built to relieve the gridlock of the streets around Boston Common.“It was an exciting day for the city,” said author Doug Most. “Everyone was dressed beautifully. There was a big crowd at the entrance to the tunnel and a growing throng of people.”

Most tells the remarkable story of the creation of the subway in his new book, “The Race Underground: Boston, New York, and the Incredible Rivalry That Built America’s First Subway.” Recreating the sights, sounds and scenes of the late 19th century, Most puts the engineering feat in the context of the dreamers, inventors, businessmen, politicians, and workers who made it happen, overcoming a multitude of engineering, political, financial and public perception challenges.

“It takes someone to come up with a bold idea and even though it might not happen in (his) lifetime, it might happen in the next generation,” Most said.

Most, deputy managing editor for features at The Boston Globe and author of another book and numerous magazine articles, was intrigued by Boston’s subway – the first in the nation, seven years before NYC – because “it defines Boston as a city of innovation and a city of firsts.” As he researched it, he discovered another compelling story – a rivalry between brothers Henry Melville Whitney of Boston and William Collins Whitney of New York City to bring the subway to their city first. For many years, Henry had a summer home in Cohasset and loved to horseback ride with his daughter to view the ocean from the top of Turkey Hill.

“Henry Whitney was the first person to utter the words, ‘we should build a tunnel under downtown Boston,’” Most said. “When I discovered he had a brother who was a pivotal player in New York City’s debate about the subway, then it became a story not just about a project, but about a family as well.”

Although Most’s account of the rivalry and political machinations is under whelming, he excels at evoking fast-growing Boston and New York City in the late 19th century when everyone – from the wealthiest businessmen and financiers to the poorest immigrants – faced dirty streets packed with horse-drawn carriages, cable-pulled cars and pedestrians.

Most also tells a story of vision and ingenuity. Nearly half a century passed between the idea by Alfred Beach in 1849 to build underground transportation to the creation of an electric motor in the 1880s by engineer George Sprague. Sprague, overshadowed by his one-time employer Thomas Edison, is an under-recognized genius whose electric train – an alternative to London’s steam trains – proved that underground travel did not need to be smoky, dirty and noisy, Most said.

The story also reflects the ways public perception had to change for the subway to be accepted. When the subway idea was proposed, critics said it was doomed because people associated the underground with germs, death, and even the Devil. At the opening of the world’s first subway in London in 1863, a thousand people started down the stairs and turned around. “People were terrified and it took decades for them to overcome that fear,” Most said.

Compared to the filling in of Boston’s Back Bay, the subway project was far more complicated. Most describes in detail how it required thousands of Irish and Italian workers to dig a tunnel using strength alone, steps taken to protect buildings from sinking or tilting, the rerouting of existing sewage, gas and water lines, and the challenges of working with electricity, which was only a decade old. There were accidents, deaths and even destruction from a devastating gas explosion, unrelated to the subway project.

The first leg, which took 2 1/2 years to build, started on Boylston Street at Arlington Church, turned onto Tremont Street, and ended at Park Street Church. A ride cost a nickel and speed was 8 miles per hour, a big improvement over the 2 miles per hour in horse-drawn wagons and street cars so close together that “people could walk from rooftop to rooftop without ever putting a foot on the ground,” Most said.

Most, a 46-year-old Needham father of two, rode the Orange Line when he lived in Jamaica Plain and now rides the commuter rail to South Station and then the Red Line to work.

The book has changed his riding experience and given him a sense of appreciation he hopes readers will share.

“One of the things I hope people take away from the book is that we tend to zip through life and we do things fast with our heads down,” he said. “I do find myself as I’m riding the subway, pausing and looking around at a marvel of engineering and thinking about how this happened.”

Doug Most will read from “The Race Underground: Boston, New York, and the Incredible Rivalry That Built America’s First Subway” and speak from 7 to 8:30 p.m. Tuesday at the Thomas Crane Library in Quincy and from 3 to 4:30 p.m. March 9 at Hingham Public Library. He also will speak from 10 to 11 a.m. April 16 at Pilgrim Hall Museum in Plymouth. All events are free. For information, go to www.dougmost.com/doug-most.

Jody Feinberg may be reached at jfeinberg@ledger.com or follow on Twitter @JodyF_Ledger.